Christmas memories
by HikaruSora27
Summary: A short story about one of Remus's fond memories. (Remus/Sirius/Harry family fluff) Note: Original fic was in Japanese. I only translated it


When Christmas is approaching, the streets are bustling with people who become very cheerful in this holiday season. As I went to Hogsmeade to do some shopping, the whole village turned into a Christmas scenery. Wreaths of holly and multi-colored candles where placed everywhere, making the entire village sparkle and in the center of the main street there was a great tree that was decorated with various ornaments.

Fairies where flying around and the children would watch them, their eyes twinkling with joy.

As for me, when I look at a Christmas tree, it brings back precious memories and as I watched the one from the village, I remembered something from a long time ago.

* * *

My family was poor so we only had a very small tree that we could decorate to some degree, but even so, to me who was a small boy back then, I always looked forward to decorate the tree together with my parents on Christmas.

When I spent my first Christmas at Hogwarts, I was really anxious and felt uneasy. At the end of the year, there was going to be a full moon and I feared that I would cause trouble for my parents, thus I didn't returned home for the holidays.

Despite that I didn't went home, when I saw the grand Christmas tree that was placed in the Great Hall, I was dazzled by its beauty and it made my spirit feel relieved.

To my parents, I wrote a letter in which I described in detail about the magnificent tree at Hogwarts and they replied to me, wishing that I would spend Christmas time at Hogwarts from the bottom of my heart without any worry even though I was by myself.

After I read the letter from my parents, I put it inside a box where I kept biscuits and placed it somewhere safe. I was glad to say that I did spend my first Christmas at Hogwarts without any problems.

When I became a second-year, my friends, James, Sirius and Peter had unfortunately discovered my true nature.  
I remained at Hogwarts the previous year but apparently so did Sirius and James. Peter, who only had his mother, had to go back home, telling us that she will be sad if he didn't return to her, thus he went home with the Hogwarts Express. After we bid our farewells to Peter, the three of us went back to school at the Great Hall so we could have lunch. There was a grand Christmas tree placed in the Hall this year as well along with about twelve others but that one was the most magnificent and its ornaments made it so dazzling that I didn't realize that I was staring at it for a while.

"What's wrong?"Sirius asked me who probably found it strange that I was standing still in front of the tree.  
Shortly after, James also came by and stood by my side.

I became a little embarrassed but I told them that I was fascinated by the beauty of the tree before us and I was wondering who decorated it.

"Maybe it was Hagrid or the house elves?" Sirius said bluntly.  
I told them, even though I still felt embarrassed, that my family was poor and we could only have a small tree and barely had anything to decorate it with, so I wanted at least once to try and ornate such a beautiful tree.

Hearing this, Sirius and James had a very surprised look on their faces.

"You guys probably think that I sounded like a little kid just now," I said quite flustered.

Sirius and James grinned at each other.

"That sounds like a lot fun!" they shouted in unison."Let's eat lunch quickly and go look for a good fir tree!" both of them sounding very enthusiastic.

I was surprised when I heard them and asked why they wanted to do that.

"Because we are going to make a Christmas tree just for us!"

I was overjoyed when I heard that and the three of us hurried to finish our lunch.

When we went outside, we found the perfect tree in a place no one couldn't find us, deep in the forest. There we placed decorations on a tree, such as: ribbons and joke tinsels, candles and shiny golden balls made from magic.

After that, James showed us a fairy (_that I had no idea when he caught it_) that he held in his hand.

"This will serve as the angel on top of the tree, and you will be the one to place it Remus", James said and he gave the fairy to me.

I was taken by surprise and could only stare at James while he beamed at me. Sirius pulled me by the hand and he pointed to his broom. Seeing my surprised face, Sirius chuckled and said: "I'm going to fly us up there so you can place it."

I was so happy that my heart started to beat really fast. I rushed to sit on the broom while holding on to Sirius's back while he took us up slowly.  
James was the best in school when it came to flying on the broom but Sirius was also equally skilled.

These guys always liked to fly in a wild, dangerous manner but I was thankful that Sirius was taking it slow now, thus I had no problem in placing our pretend angel on top of the tree.  
When I placed the fairy, it sprinkled a lot of golden dust which made the whole tree sparkle.  
"Is it enough for you?" Sirius asked me, after staring at the scene before me for a little while.

"Yeah", I said and Sirius began to lower us down.

"Did you had fun?" asked James.

"You bet! It was amazing!" I said to him smiling.  
The 3 of us laughed and from that year on we decided that the tree we found in that place would be just our Christmas tree.

In the following year we were wondering what kind of decorations we should use. Peter always went home for the holidays, so the four of us couldn't spend Christmas together and the days went by fast when it became the 23rd of December, the day when we decorate.

It became a usual custom for us every year to go and decorate that tree and then cause a great prank in the Great Hall during the Christmas Eve dinner.

When we first decorated that tree, to me it was the most beautiful out of all, even without splendid things. It was when my heart would beat with so much joy.

Although we had just makeshift decorations, to me it was the most delightful tree ever.

As I watched the tree from Hogsmeade, I didn't know why, but a small fairy came close to me. I wanted to try and catch it but, but instead the fairy settled itself gently in the palm of my hand.

I found this quite strange but I asked the fairy if it would like to help me out with decorating at home. The fairy yawned and nodded in agreement before dozing off and I let out a small chuckle as I placed it inside my coat's pocket. I took my shopping bags and made my way back to Grimmauld Place.

When I reached the mansion, I could hear Sirius singing cheerfully a Christmas song. I went to place the grocery bags in the kitchen and after that I made my way to the living room to see Harry and Sirius having fun decorating.

Tinsels, ribbons, Christmas balls and candles where casting beautiful lights. I stood for a while to watch them as I remembered the time when I did the same thing when I was a student and Harry reminded me so much of James.  
Sirius was the same ever; laughing and smiling just like when we were younger.

I knocked gently on the open door and both of them turned towards my direction.

"Welcome back Remus!", they both said smiling.

"Join the fun, mate!" said Sirius cheerfully.

"You guys really did a great job with the tree. It's very beautiful", I said and Harry's face brightened up.

"Really? I have never decorated a Christmas tree by myself until now, so you don't find it weird?"

Hearing this, me and Sirius looked at each other with wide eyes, taken by surprise by what Harry just said.

"Well it's just that…When I was at the Dursley's, Dudley was the one to decorate the tree while I wasn't even allowed to touch the ornaments…and also at Hogwarts, the trees were already decorated so, for me to do it by myself is…" Harry said shyly.  
Just then, Sirius placed his hand gently on top of Harry's head.

"It's very beautiful so there's no need to worry about it", Sirius said giving him a warm smile.

Harry stared at him, his eyes widening a little before he finally smiled.

"Then shall we continue?" I asked and Harry smile widened even more and Sirius started to sing again.

When they were wondering whether to place a star or an angel on top of the tree, I remembered the fairy from my pocket. I took it out gently and with a flick of the wand, I changed its appearance into an angel and the fairy winked at me.

"Harry", I said as I extended my hand that was grasping something towards him.

He looked at me for a while before he took out his hand, waiting to place what I prepared. When Harry saw the fairy he was taken by surprise.

"I think it would be good to place it on the top, don't you think so, Harry?"

Nodding while smiling broadly, Harry climbed on the step-ladder and placed the angelic figure on top of the tree and the fairy began to fly in circles and scattered a lot of golden dust.

"This sure brings back memories…"said Sirius who was now standing next to me.

I was glad to hear that he remembered about that.

"To me, the Christmas tree brings me a lot of good memories."

"Same here, mate", said Sirius joyfully.

Harry seemed to have a lot of fun watching how the fairy flew around and all we could do was smile.  
"It's my first time seeing such a beautiful tree", Harry said after he descended from the stepladder, his face shining brightly of happiness.

He went back to watching the fairy again for a little while me and Sirius watched the happy look on Harry's face.


End file.
